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I reach her apartment in record time, sprinting up the stairs and banging on her door. She opens in seconds, still in her uniform.
"Jamie, hey."
Shoving my shoulder against the door, I stumble into her apartment, the vein in my neck pulsating.
"What ar—"
"No," I snap, cutting her off. "I’m going to speak, and you are going to listen." I crack my neck and puff out my chest, my nostrils flaring.
She stiffens, her bottom lip trembling.
"Did you meet with Mark tonight?"
Her silence is my answer.
"Lara?" Her eyes widen and she stumbles backward a step, glancing sideways at the door.
Oh my God.
"What the fuck, Lara?"
Her hands fly up to her chest and her eyes clench shut. "I'm sorry, I-I… "
It takes everything in me not to close the space between us, not to grab her shoulders and shake her. "You what? What possible excuse do you have right now? You went behind my back and met with my friend and told him to fuck off? For what? Do you know what you've done?"
She scoffs. “What? I ruined your ‘friendship’. He was using you for your money. I’m not sorry for wanting to look out for you.”
Her words ignite a fire in me I didn't know was possible. I'm afraid if I move, I'm going to do something I'll regret. So, I stay right where I am and keep my voice low. "Mark's son has cancer."
Lara freezes.
"Their insurance won’t pay for it. I've been paying for his chemo treatment."
She clenches her jaw, and the skin tightens on her face as a whisper squeezes through her teeth. "I d-didn't know."
"Of course you didn't know. How could you? But you didn’t even bother to ask. So now, I’m the one who doesn’t know. I don't know who you are." She's standing frozen in the living room when I turn for the door. "Oh, one more thing. Did you fuck with the books at Eden's?"
Her mouth opens, but no sound comes out, and as she tilts her head to the ground, it hits me. I'm such a fucking idiot.
I slam my fist into the doorframe before I can stop myself. Lara gasps, but I barely hear it over the crash of the wood. When I look back, I see the tears sliding down her cheeks. "You're fired! And we're done!"
I slam the door and sprint down the stairs, fleeing from the wave of heartbreak that is about to crash into my chest.
Chapter 20
Lara
Whatiswrongwithme?
I'm gripping the sink in my bathroom, struggling to catch my breath. Air is coming in, but nothing is coming out.
Okay, maybe there's a lot wrong with me. I definitely didn't plan this well, that's for sure. But how the fuck was I supposed to know that Jamie actually had a heart? That he was paying for Mark's kid's cancer treatment? I mean, I saw him with Maddie when she was attacked and it seemed genuine. Until she ended up in his lap. So, it’s not too difficult to see now that his alley heroics were only a ploy to get into Maddie’s shorts.
But it doesn’t matter. I fucked up—beyond bad.
My guilt is suffocating, and I probably deserve to drown in my own agony. I should have done more research. I should have just talked with Mark first, for fuck's sake. I really didn't want to hurt anyone other than Jamie, and by rationalizing the possibility of collateral damage, I became exactly what I hated about Jamie. Heartless, selfish, and insensitive.
And I wasn’t prepared for the look I saw in his eyes when he confronted me about Mark. It was the look of a heart splitting in two, cracking at the entire core, everything shattering inside him.
